Desire, however, was vain. For four weeks Oman lay fever-stricken, and then, suddenly, began to convalesce, and in a fortnight more was about as usual. Spring was now nearly gone, and summer, with its murderous heat, upon the town again. The crops were up, and the business of irrigation begun in the fields; for all the luxuriant foliage of the wild was withered and dry, parched for the rains that were not yet to come for a month or more. Among the townsfolk, in the evening, the great subject of gossip was always: “The Child of Gokarna—called Oman.” “He has given up the life of the Snataka.” “No more does he study the sacred books.” “Yet the ceremony of the cessation of study has not taken place.” “Ah, yes, something is wrong. It is very strange.” Oman still wore the sacred cord of the Brahman. How should he, knowing so much of the holy Vedas, remove it? But he moved through his native town a wanderer, an outcast, addressing none of the townspeople, who would scarcely have answered him for fear of defiling their caste. How this situation had come about, Oman could not have told. It had been a gradual and natural growth. During his convalescence it had occurred to him that his father and mother were ashamed of him. This idea he tested in various ways, and found it to be true. Up to that time he had been ashamed of himself: furiously, bitterly rebellious concerning his weakness. But now, at once, the spirit of self-protection rose hot within him. Others, his own parents, were ashamed of him. Should he turn against himself? Never. The masculine instinct of self-defence turned inward toward that other timid, shrinking nature that he longed so to conceal. And when, at length, he was about again, his parents found him wrapped in an impenetrable mantle of—was it pride?—was it stupidity?—was it temper?—arrogance? He was unapproachable and unsociable. He took not the slightest notice of those around him, never speaking of his own accord, and doing his best to prevent the address of others. Gokarna held many periods of self-communion with himself as to his duty toward this child, and especially about the matter of the sacred cord. But time passed, and no special action was taken. Oman seemed to have marked out his life for himself; and the father, bewildered, let him pursue the course he would, and finally ceased to torment himself with questions.